2015 Season Artists

Our inaugural season was a mix of established and emerging artists who live/work in Valparaiso. It was an exciting season that introduced the CSA concept to the region.

Friendly Monsters, acrylic and ink

Joseph Gonzalez

Joseph Gonzalez works as a senior in-house designer for the Community Foundation of Northwest Indiana, Inc., with 11 years in the industry. Freelancing under the alias Miracletwentyone, Joseph creates brands for local and national clients. He is the owner and photographer of Blackbean Photography, specializing in family portraits, and is one of the founders of the Insight Design Conference. As an artist Joseph has had work shown in galleries throughout NWI and creates artwork through traditional means and vector art. Joseph’s work is inspired by childlike themes of monsters and fun faces. Joseph earned his bachelor’s in visual communication from the Illinois Institute of Art – Chicago. Joseph grew up in Whiting, IN, and now resides in Valparaiso with his wife Lisa and three young children.www.miracletwentyone.org

Hannah Hammond Hagman

After losing her father in early April 2015, Hannah felt compelled to create a piece to share that enveloped some of the work and process of losing as well as finding—as she was creating a space for both to exist simultaneously in herself. These works for the CSA project speak of her internal process, but also address both an existent and absent space and presence, or body. It’s this duality that she continues to address personally as she moves forward from her own loss, but she believes it applies to a larger notion of self and being that each of us can access and claim. We can sit in the chair—or save it for another.

Hannah is an artist who has been involved in arts education and arts and cultural non-profit organizations for the past seventeen years.

Untitled, hand-colored linocut print

Gregg Hertzlieb

One of Gregg’s main subjects in his artwork is a fish. He thinks of the fish as representing evolution and the passage of time, although in its isolation it does have a spiritual aspect to it. For CSA Valpo, Gregg created an edition of 9×9″ hand-colored linoleum cut prints.

Gregg Hertzlieb is the director/curator of the Brauer Museum of Art at Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Indiana. Hertzlieb has a master’s degree in fine arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a master’s degree in education from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

An exhibiting artist working primarily in watercolor and pen and ink, Hertzlieb has shown his art in numerous exhibitions. His work is in both public and private collections.

In addition to performing his duties at the museum, Hertzlieb teaches Museum Studies, Managing Facilities, and Printmaking; serves as art editor for Valparaiso University’s journal The Cresset; and contributes essays on Brauer collection objects to the Valparaiso Poetry Review. Hertzlieb is a native of Northwest Indiana and lives in La Porte.

Robin Janota

Born and raised in the Calumet Region, now living in Valparaiso, Robin Janota attended Prairie State College and the Art Institute of Las Vegas. Retired from the auto industry as a Master Metalworker, she currently paints commissioned portraits and landscapes and practices pyrography (wood burning).

Frank draws inspiration from artists who are having fun. Though he has professional favorites he admires, he finds he is most inspired by lesser-known people on Instagram who are doing art in their spare time between work weeks. Frank has appeared in several skateboard-themed art shows, and has had his work published by Out of Step Books.

Frank also likes to dabble with a variety of surfaces, a favorite being a good skate deck.Through his art, Frank hopes to spread a message of fun and hope.

David Summers

David Summers is a native of Nashville, TN, and has lived in Valparaiso, IN, since 2000. In 2009, David began studying digital photography at The Harrington College of Design in Chicago, IL. He has been published in numerous magazines including Spin, Alternative Press, Guitar World, and Visions. When he’s not taking pictures, he is a tour manager for various bands. David loves to travel and does so at every possible opportunity. He hopes to visit as many countries as he can and document everything along the way.

Aimee Tomasek

We travel to escape, discover, and explore. We don’t travel for a million reasons.Why is a new landscape more interesting? Why is a change in scenery desirable? Are we just missing what is right in front of us every day? Another Beautiful Day in Paradise is a portfolio that addresses the desire to explore the familiar as though it is the exotic. Aimee Tomasek’s view is exciting every day. It is beautiful. It is subtle. It is cold. It is warm. It is a frame of mind. It is a sense of humor. It is close to her. It is expansive. It is the act of seeing every single day, instead of missing out on what could or would be.

Melissa Washburn

Melissa Washburn is a Valparaiso artist, illustrator, and designer. She has lived in Valparaiso with her family since 2005. She has a love of all things hand-made, and is an avid knitter and birdwatcher. Melissa was a 2012-2013 recipient of an Individual Artist Program grant from the Indiana Arts Commission, and has shown her work in galleries and art centers throughout Northwest Indiana. She earned her BFA from Binghamton University (SUNY), and holds a Masters in Arts Administration from IU Bloomington.